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Bark, Bark, Bark! I'm Going Bonkers! How Do I Stop This?

Hi all,

My girl Lucy is just over a year old now, and she seems to have learned some bad habits from my mothers corgi, Poe.

Poe is always, always barking, and getting overexcited about the cats in our house (all of whom he's met). Lucy has been fine with our kitties- she met them all when she was a baby, so we've had few problems.

Poe also barks. At everything. It's horrible and I'm 'not allowed' to train him (as he's not mine). But I can train Lucy- who has taken up the very annoying habit of barking.
All the time. When Poe takes her toy, when he blocks her from coming into the living room, when she's upstairs and wants me up there, and so on and so on.

I'm so frustrated- what am I supposed to do to stop this behavior? I'm so thankful for this forum; I've gotten so much help here with my questions and concerns on raising Lucy- everyone around me gives me the most awful advice. Someone actually suggested that I just start yelling at her when she starts barking! I couldn't believe they were saying it..

Anyway, to sum up, I love Lucy- but the barking is driving me bonkers! What can I do?

Do you live with the Corgi full time? If you cannot train the Corgi to hush, it is going to make this tremendously harder :\ Why can't you train the Corgi? I would give them both speak and quiet commands to practice, make them bark on command, then say QUIET, or HUSH, and treat them when they stop barking. Eventually when you are going crazy with the barking you can use this command to quiet them both down.

You can just teach your own dog not to bark, but with the other dog barking all the time that is only going to fuel the excitement and desire for your dog to bark. So it's not impossible, but it would be much more difficult...

Some people, as Alisha suggests, control barking by training the dog to only bark on command. I've never done this, so can't advise. What I do find works is to distract the dog from barking by saying 'Quiet!' and producing a treat which is only given when the barking stops. The penny quickly drops - carry on barking, no treat; be quiet, treat. You could at the same time move further away so that Lucy not only has to stop barking but move away from what she's barking about in order to get the treat from you. You might actually find that Poe cottons on to this as well, not wanting to miss out when he sees Lucy getting treats, and will train himself even if you're not allowed to! (Assuming he's as piggy about treats as my friend's corgis - one of hers is the biggest food thief I know!) I used this method to train my Oliver to stop barking in the garden and come into the house to get a treat, and with perseverance it does work.

Thanks to Both! Am Trying Immediately :)

Yea, Poe is not my dog- my Mother is very into 'training him herself'- but she just can't seem to do it. That said, I can't seem to convince her that training a dog is a collaborative effort; we have to be consistent or we'll just confuse the dog..

I'm working with him, and you're so right- he is such a little piggy! Corgis generally are.

As for Lucy AND Poe, I know that a big part of this is they have precious little to do to burn off energy; our dog park is not safe (big dogs who are not controlled) so I'm pretty confident that that is part of the issue- am I right in thinking that the situation would be different, if they didn't have such excess energy?

I will definitely try what you've suggested- thanks so much for responding, I really, really appreciate the help!